Pipistrel Ajdovšcina was established in 1987 as the first private aircraft producer in former Yugoslavia. It is hard for those of us living in a free society to imagine that before that, under the totalitarian Yugoslavian regime, private aviation was virtually non-existent and it was almost unimaginable for private individuals to make aircraft at home; alternative aviation really was alternative ...

Article and photography by Erik Roelofs. "That Others May Live" is the motto of the United States Air Force combat search and rescue (CSAR) community. Pacific Wings joined the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB to learn more about modern day CSAR operations. The Real Deal The rescue squadrons at Moody AFB belong to the 347th Rescue Group, which, in turn, falls under the ...

When talking about New Plymouth-based Ice Aviation, the iceberg analogy is an impossible one to resist—particularly as Ice Aviation is named largely in honour of the grand frozen expanses and icy seas of Antarctica. In exactly the same way that 90% of an iceberg remains hidden beneath the surface, Ice Aviation’s single (immaculate) hangar, sole (equally immaculate) Robinson R22 and ...

Just over a month and a half after the first production Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” was delivered to the aircraft’s launch customer—Japan’s ANA—Boeing, in association with Air New Zealand, brought one of its Dreamliner test aircraft to New Zealand as part of a brief tour that also included Australia. The visiting aircraft, ZA001 (N787BA), has flown the highest number of hours ...

Training tomorrow’s warriors is what the 23rd Flying Training Squadron at Fort Rucker, Alabama, is all about. Pacific Wings joined the squadron to see how the US Air Force trains its future helicopter pilots using the UH-1H Iroquois and TH-1H Huey II. The early days The inception of military helicopter pilot training can be traced back to January 1944, when the US ...

For the first time since the 1999 intervention in Kosovo, the French Navy has found itself carrying out a large-scale combat operation. Henri-Pierre Grolleau reports from the deck of the Charles de Gaulle in the Gulf of Sirte. Compared to the Kosovo crisis, a lot of things have changed for the French Navy (Marine nationale). The Foch has been sold to ...

Article by Rob Neil. In the early 1980s, when Piaggio Aero named its new aircraft Avanti (“forward”), the name couldn’t have been more appropriate. Today, the beautiful sleek Avanti II is still futuristic, and is still simultaneously the world’s fastest civil turboprop and, arguably, its “greenest” business aircraft. It is as “modern” today as it was when it first flew, and ...

Mount Cook Airline, as it is known today, has a long and extremely proud history as a pioneer in New Zealand’s air transport industry. The company had its roots in the 1920s when it was originally established at Timaru by Rodolph Lysaght Wigley as the New Zealand Aero Transport Company. Having originally begun transport and tourism services to and from ...

When Peter Vincent of Vincent Aviation makes up his mind to do something, it will eventually be done—and done properly. It is undoubtedly why this small private company has somehow survived the worst financial times in living memory and defied the usual demons that afflict aviation. What began as a tiny charter company based in Wellington has grown to become New ...

By Rob Neil. In June 2009, Pacific Wings featured an article on the all-composite Flight Design CTLS light sport aircraft. The Flight Design range was then—and remains—one of the most popular light sport aircraft (LSA) in the world. Flight Design sold the first LSA into India, it was the first LSA to earn Chinese Type Design Approval and it has been ...